Twenty-four years and about, oh, a week ago, I called and got told, We can’t possibly fit you in for at least four days, ma’am.
I stewed a few minutes, called again, and asked to speak directly to Dennis, the owner of the shop, who knew me. Dennis: my baby is due in four days and my battery keeps dying on me.
Dennis knew we only had the one car, and he told me, You bring that thing right here. I’ll do it right now.
Little kindnesses are huge and they reverberate forward through the years, remembered. And so it was that I found myself, about four months ago, suddenly thinking of Dennis and how much less stressful he’d made Richard’s arrival into the world. I googled and found that Hansen’s Automotive Service in Nashua NH was still there, wrote him a note telling him do you remember when–and thank you. When we needed your help, you were there for us.
And wondered. I don’t know what brought him to mind or why his being thought of now from afar for the basic goodness of the man–and he was a sweetheart–needed to happen now. But I felt I needed to speak up, right now, don’t wait, enough so that I did and snailmailed it off to his shop.
All I know is, whatever battery needed fixing over there, I was glad to be able to help.